Cheapest Way To Transfer Money From Ireland To Australia – 2018

Stephen Palmer

I moved to Australia in 2013 and created this blog to help Irish people living in Australia. 10 million visitors later it now has evolved into a job board, flight company and offers support with many services Irish people need when they move to Australia.
Pop over to my resources page(irisharoundoz.com/resources) to find every service and product I recommend.
Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you here again.

So don’t worry you are not alone, in fact when I started Irish Around Oz in 2013 I published this article on sending money from Australia to Ireland and it saved many of my readers $1000’s on bank fees. This is an updated 2018 version.

Here is what happened to me when I went to transfer money from Ireland to Australia:

The mistake I made when I first moved to Australia was just sending it via my bank! I figured sure I would get a reasonable rate, and it is probably the easiest.

What I didn’t realise was that banks could charge between 4% – 6% on the exchange rate(yes that much!).

I also paid about €20 in “Sending fees.”

Not only that but when I got the money in my new commonwealth bank account, I had to pay a receiving fee from an international bank transfer.

So my hard earned €3000 transfer to Australia had accumulated over €100 in bank fees when you include the sending/receiving fees and the crazy % they charge on the exchange rate.

Of course, I didn’t care, I needed the money and frankly thought it was the only way to send money from Ireland to Australia.

About one week later, my buddy, Ian told me about CurrencyFair, an Irish company that he used to transfer money from Ireland to Australia a few months previous.

He explained how you send money to CurrencyFair’s local bank account and then exchange it on the marketplace to whatever currency you need. In my case Australian dollars.

Then you send it to your bank account form their local bank.

Basically meaning you don’t pay any sending or receiving fees(which is excellent!)

But I still had reservations; it only took me a few minutes to set up the money transfer from Ireland to Australia with my bank. I don’t mind the fees, and this CurrencyFair thingy sounds complicated.

Then he mentioned the exchange rate which they charge less than around 0.35% versus 4-6% with banks!!

I went to their calculator to see how much more I would have saved if I had used them with my €3000 and

it said that the “Recipient gets $150.44 more!”

So to cut a long story short it was the very last time I sent money via banks!

The average person who moves to Australia on a working holiday visa for two years sends money from Ireland to Australia or from Australia to Ireland up to five times!

So it makes a lot of sense to use CurrencyFair versus your bank. Once you are set up, it literally takes three clicks to transfer money from Australia to Ireland.

Over the years I have recommended CurrencyFair as the cheapest way to transfer money from Ireland to Australia.

Thankfully many of you reading this have not yet lost out on the crazy bank fees.

I am happy to let you know that if you sign up with this link, you will get your first five transfers for free.

They have a very low €3 transfer fee, but still handy to get some free transfers when you are sending your money from Ireland to Australia.

This short one minute video explains how CurrencyFair works:

What other options are there to transfer money from Ireland to Australia?

As you will see from above CurrencyFair is my personal go-to for sending money to Australia or anywhere for that matter.

But sometimes you need a more personal approach with a dedicated broker who can offer advice on when to transfer, how the exchange rate is doing etc.

Or you might just be sending a lot of money home from Ireland to Australia(€10k+), and you want to speak to someone.

This is why my second recommendation would be OFX(Ozforex) they offer fast & secure, international money transfers and better FX rates than your bank. If you sign up with them here, you get no transaction fees over $1000AU for life, for all Irish Around Oz readers.

Stephen Palmer

I moved to Australia in 2013 and created this blog to help Irish people living in Australia. 10 million visitors later it now has evolved into a job board, flight company and offers support with many services Irish people need when they move to Australia.
Pop over to my resources page(irisharoundoz.com/resources) to find every service and product I recommend.
Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you here again.